


Not Your Shadow

by iCarly1969



Series: The Great Maze Challenge / Competition [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iCarly1969/pseuds/iCarly1969
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She almost wished that she had went to Beauxbatons, like her parents had suggested. If only to be recognised as the girl who was good at studying, the one who might be a little quiet but was nice enough to be around, instead of the twin of the girl who was everybody's friend, the girl everyone notices. But she didn't hate Parvati, and she didn't want to be separated from her twin. That was why she came to Hogwarts in the fist place, and she did not regret it. Even if she's still her twin's shadow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Entry #8 for The Great Maze Challenge/Competition: You had better [guard] your [money] better, Carly. But you decide to go straight at the upcoming fork and two Indian twins walk by hand in hand. Are they the best of friends who do everything together, or does one of them wish she were her own person?

When they were younger, they were inseparable. They did everything together, went everywhere together. In fact, that was how their accidental magic manifested - their parents found out that they literally couldn't separate the twins that one time they had tried. It became a running joke in the family.

Parvati was always the more outgoing one, though, and she was also more adventurous. Padma had always trailed after her, like a faithful shadow, afraid of being left behind. People started addressing her as 'Parvati's twin', even their parents and their friend, Pansy.

Draco was the only one who called her Padma. They don't meet often, however, as her parents thought that the Malfoys were bad news.

She misses his company. He's the only one who was content with spending a whole day beside her with a book and some cookies while Parvati went off to play with Pansy.

* * *

There was one time they were taken to a muggle shopping mall, because their parents wanted to expose them to the world they coexist with.

There, she met a boy her age, with emerald green eyes and unruly hair.

He had asked her for her name and she had introduced herself as Parvati's twin. He had asked her who Parvati was. That was the first time she realised that she could really be herself. She told him that her name was Padma.

She never found out his name, and she never met him again.

Until Hogwart's, that is.

* * *

It was before first year started and they were shopping for supplies. She was waiting outside Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions when she saw him standing inside. She could not remember when, or where she had met him, but she remembered the eyes.

His gaze skipped over her.

She could not help the disappointment, even though she had not expected him to remember.

She was just another stranger who had met him a long time ago, after all.

Parvati, standing next to her, spotted him too. She leant over excitedly, whispering into Padma's ear that the boy was Harry Potter.

* * *

Ravenclaw was a new start.

It was refreshing, to be known as herself, not as somebody else's twin.

Oh, don't get her wrong, she loved her twin a lot, but she wanted to be Padma, not Parvati's twin. She didn't want to be forever someone else's shadow.

After a while, though, people started knowing about Parvati. The Gryffindor girl.

People who she had not interacted much with in her first few months there started to call her Parvati's twin, too.

Everyone, except for the teachers and her dorm mates.

* * *

(She almost wished that she had went to Beauxbatons, like her parents had suggested. If only to be recognised as the girl who was good at studying, the one who might be a little quiet but was nice enough to be around, instead of the twin of the girl who was everybody's friend, the girl everyone notices. But she didn't hate Parvati, and she didn't want to be separated from her twin. That was why she came to Hogwarts in the fist place, and she did not regret it. Even if she's still her twin's shadow.)

(At least they both made it out of the war.)

**Author's Note:**

> When Harry Potter asked her to be his date at the library, it was a dream come true. Oh, she knew that she never caught his eye, since he was less than subtle about liking Cho Chang, but at least he had seen her as an acceptable second choice, even if second place is just the first place for losers. He had noticed her before her twin, and had deemed her good enough.  
> Then she realised that he had called her 'Parvati'.  
> "I think you got the wrong person," she told him.  
> Harry simply blinked at her, confused. "Wrong person?"  
> "Parvati's my twin, actually. My name is Padma."  
> "Padma Patil?"  
> "Yeah." She spotted her twin. To avoid further conversation, she pointed behind him. "Parvati's there."  
> He turned around. "Oh, thank you!"  
> He didn't look back at her.  
> She went back to her books. They were easier to deal with than people, after all. She told herself that it was fine that nobody really noticed her.  
> (liar, liar, pants on fire)  
> (she went with Ron, eventually, because being second best was better than nothing at all.)  
> (or at least, that's what she had told herself)


End file.
